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I’m Yet To Be Briefed On Innoson Chairman’s Arrest – AGF

The Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the
Federation, (AGF) Abubakar Malami on Thursday said that he has not been
briefed on why the Chairman of Innocent Motors, Chief Innocent Chukwuma
was arrested.

The Economic Financial and Crimes Commission, EFCC,
two days ago had arrested Chief Chukwuma and took him to Abuja for
allegedly refusing to honour invitation, which the Innoson Motors boss
has denied.

Briefing State House correspondents after the Federal
Executive Council, meeting presided by President Muhammadu Buhari at
the Council Chamber, Presidential Villa, Abuja on Thursday, the AGF
said that he was yet to be briefed by the agency responsible for the
arrest on the reason behind the action.

Asked to explain the
circumstances behind the arrest of Chukwuma, he said, “Well in all
sincerity I wasn’t privy to facts that led the stated arrest. I have not
been formally briefed by the relevant agencies.

“One thing I
know about Innoson is the fact that there has been a pending case
between him and GTBank which is pending in court and is being prosecuted
accordingly. Other than that, I am not privy to the fact and
circumstances that led to the alleged arrest Wednesday. So until I am
briefed by the relevant agencies, I am not in the clear position to make
any disclosures relating to that.”

On the memo from his office
to the Council he said, “Two memos were presented Thursday from the
Federal Ministry of Justice and the first memo was a memo relating to
copy right bill which is intended to be transmitted by the executive to
the legislature which passes it into law.

“It is a Bill that
relates to creative industry; it is designed to accord protection of
creative works against piracy and protection of intellectual property
rights.

“The bill was taken and was accordingly approved by the
Council; the Attorney General has accordingly been instructed to
transmit same to the National Assembly for passage into law and eventual
assent if it is eventually passed.

“The second memo that was
taken from the Federal Ministry of Justice was a memo relating to
suppression of piracy and maritime offences act. The intention was to
accord protection to the maritime industry against pirates and indeed,
come up with a comprehensive policy provision accommodated into the bill
which is intended to ensure that at the end of the day that the spirit
of international conventions that have been ratified by Nigeria over
time relating to maritime industry are indeed accommodated into the bill
with a view to bring it in line with the international best practices
and indeed ensure the protection of our maritime boundary.”

The bill approved by the Council will be transmitted to the National Assembly for passage and eventual assent by the President.

Speaking
on the persisting fuel scarcity in the country, the Minister of
Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed said that all the relevant
agencies including the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Dr Ibe Kachikwu
were working to ensure the end of the fuel crisis.

Mohammed said,
“We just concluded a very marathon Council meeting you take into
consideration that it started Wednesday and it just ended this afternoon

“As
for the fuel scarcity, I can assure you that both the Ministry of
Petroleum Resources and the Department of Petroleum Resources are
working round the clock to ensure that this thing becomes a thing of the
past.”

On his part, the Minister of State for Environment,
Ibrahim Jibril said his ministry presented two memos to Council and that
one of the memos was taken on Wednesday.

He said, “The one taken
Thursday is a policy memo aimed at seeking Council’s approval for the
revision of the National Biosafety Management Agency.

“The
National Bio-Safety Management Agency is an agency under the Ministry of
Environment charged with the direct responsibility of monitoring and
supervising the use of genetically modified organism in the country.

“Most
of the time, people tend to mix this agency with another sister agency
in the Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, that is National
Bio-technology Development Agency.

“While the first one under
technology is charged with the responsibility of doing research work and
making a breakthrough on many things in the country, the national
biosafety under the environment ministry is a regulatory agency with the
responsibility of checking the type of fuel that are genetically
modified product that could come into the country to ensure that they
are safe for consumption either for animals or humans and to ensure also
that they do not displace our traditional products that are found
locally in the country.

“This policy memo which was approved
Thursday, the first one we had was in 2006 and this predate even the
establishment of the agency because the agency was established by an act
of parliament in the year 2015.

“So the policy has been in place
before even the enactment of the law to establish the agency and
because it has been around for more than a decade, we felt it is
necessary to review it and bring it up to date and face the present
reality so that as technology is developing rapidly, the policy
framework that should be put in place to regulate and monitor
effectively to ensure that our citizens are save is what motivated us to
bring this and thank God, the Council has approved the policy memo.

“So we have a new policy and the Attorney General of the Federation will take the necessary steps to bring it into force.

“The
first memo which was taken Wednesday was actually about the hydrocarbon
remediation project in River State where approval was given for the
engagement of the project management consultants as well as monitoring
and evaluation to ensure that proper framework is put in place that will
assist in supervising and actualising the clean-up and that was also
approved yesterday.

On Sulphur in fuel, he said; “You are talking
about fuel for vehicles which has Sulphur contents. This is something
that cuts across two or three ministries and it has to do with Trade,
Investments and Industries. It also has to do with Petroleum Resources
through the NNPC because the products are brought in by NNPC and it is
something that we started with the West African sub-region and agreed
that the sulphur content in our fuel is extremely high and is injurious
to human health and environment. Unfortunately, the refineries in this
country are not designed to have low sulphur content but we are lucky
the new refinery coming up from Dangote in Lagos probably this coming
year will have the standard but for us we have agreed that we have to
give sometime up to about two years for the refineries in this country
to upgrade to the level where they can be able produce fuel with less
sulphur content but the work is ongoing, we are working closely with the
NNPC for they are the people who are directly responsible.

“We
are concerned because we it is part of the pollutant that can pollute
the environment and affect human health, that is why we are driving the
process to ensure that they comply with regulations and in doing this we
are getting support.”

The Minister of Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh
said: “This afternoon we presented a memo to the Council relating to the
Veterinary Council of Nigeria which has been in existence since 1953
and under the provisions of the law setting it up, the Council members
meet from time to time to improve regulations on veterinary practice so
that people not qualified to practice as Veterinary Doctors do not
operate in the country.

“The regulations were made and submitted
to Council and Council approved them for Mr. President to endorse so
that those regulations can be put in practice with the protection of
livestock and the improvement of the breed of livestock in the country.”